Sarnia's integrity commissioner is recommending Mayor Mike Bradley's pay be suspended for two weeks for another contravention of the Council Code of Conduct.
Robert Swayze, in a report to be considered by city council at its meeting on May 29, makes the recommendation based on his investigation of a complaint filed by City Clerk Dianne Gould-Brown.
She claims the mayor bullied, harassed and intimidated her at the February 27 council meeting.
At issue was a letter emailed February 22 by citizen Margaret Bird to the clerk's department and copied to the mayor and councillors. It starts with the words "Dear Mayor Bradley" and goes on to ask for a detailed accounting of all billings, including hours of service and an explanation of all work carried out by external lawyers, externally hired Human Resources consultants and the Integrity Commissioner from January 1, 2016 to February 28, 2017.
Swayze says the information asked for was subject to solicitor-client privilege and the clerk acted appropriately in treating it as a freedom of information request and denying Bird's request to have the email included on the meeting agenda.
Swayze says he watched the video of the February 27 meeting several times during which Mayor Bradley insisted the citizen's letter should have been on the agenda. The integrity commissioner says he found the mayor's behaviour towards Gould-Brown to be disrespectful of her professional capacity as an officer of the City of Sarnia, which is contrary to Section 9.0 of the Council Code of Conduct. He noted the mayor ignored the advice of the clerk, the CAO and three councillors who voiced their opinion in support of staff, saying at one point that it was "like my neighbour taking mail from my mailbox."
Swayze found there was no contravention on two other grounds of the complaint; that the mayor colluded with a ratepayer against the interests of the city and that he involved himself in a freedom of information request from a citizen.
Should council accept Swayze's recommendation Monday, Mayor Bradley's two week suspension of salary will start with his next pay period and the money will be transferred to general funds.
The mayor was docked three months pay last summer for breaching the code of conduct and council imposed various sanctions after a third-party workplace investigation report, released October 7, 2016, found he bullied and harassed four senior staff members, including City Manager Margaret Misek-Evans.
In his latest report, Swayze puts the mayor on notice that any reprisal against Gould-Brown or any future disrespect of any other member of staff will not happen or he will recommend successive suspensions of his salary each time he commits an offence.